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Finally saved 3000 what is a good setup.

After year trolling this website and saving I have finally earned 3K to spend on a system. Currently I am using some old Sony studio speakers my friend gave a few years back but now its time for a change. I am firmly in the digital camp and have been using a Squeezebox for the last few years and have transferred much of my collection onto a hard drive. What I need advice how to split 3000 between a set of speakers and an integrated amp or power amp (my setup now and use the digital volume on the SB).

To help with suggestion, my living room in going to be my main setup. The room is 18 X 14 X 10 with carpeted floors. I have room to spread these puppies at most 8 - 10 feet apart. I don't care if their monitors or floor standers but cannot be panel. I am married and my wife, who is also into music, would not like something that will dominate the household.

Heres a little about me. I am a studio musician and teacher by trade. In addition, I listen to all types of music, considering I am exposed to so much different types of music at the studio, and regularly go to live concerts to see a wide variety of music. As such, my idea deal speaker is true to the source without adding too much, makes me feel like I am actually one of those live concerts, is realistic, and just disappear. I know for many bass is key but I like honest bass not the exaggerated bass that so many speakers produce IMO.

So what you think. What would be a good combination?
aldres

Showing 2 responses by tonyangel

tonyangel
309 posts
 
Well, as far as speakers go, there was a guy on ebay last night selling a pair of Monitor Audio RX-1s for under $400; but you'll need to convince him to ship.
tonyangel
309 posts
 
I'm relatively new to this, but what I've come to believe is that the biggest challenge is in finding components to have a synergy among them. Having gone through what I have to build my own system with hind sight being 20/20; I think that if I had it to do all over again, I'd start with the speakers and try to stick to the used market here on audiogon.

With hind sight being what it is and knowing what I know now, I don't think I'll ever buy another new piece of equipment.

Just an example (and I know this is ebay, but...) I found a pair of Monitor Audio RX-1s on ebay last night and they wanted under $400 for them. These are speakers that retail for something around $700 and they were just about new. And I just realized that I've already mentioned this above.

Anyway, my listening room/den is about the same size as yours. My system consists of:

NAD C162 preamp - ~$300.00. I probably paid a bit too much for it, but it was in really good shape.

Emotiva XDA-1 DAC - $250 shipped brand new from Emotiva. It is very flexible and a big bang for the buck, but I am admittedly auditioning other DACs right now.

Aragon 2004 amp - ~$500 from ebay. This is a beast of an amp and it sounds really good with my system.

System Audio SA505 speakers - $400. These things are tiny at around 10" tall but put out a BIG sound with a nice wide and deep sound stage and are not very picky about placement. I have mine on shelves in an entertainment center.

REL T3 subwoofer - $400. This unit is small and very unobtrusive and provides bass that is smooth and it keeps up with the fast little 505s.

Now just add your chosen source. I did a lot of swapping of components before I arrived at the combo that works for me. Like I said, in hind sight, I wish I had started with the speakers.

I now realize that if I had started with speakers that suit my tastes and space limitations, I could have saved myself a lot of component swapping.
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